Did Baekje Use '主' as a Unit of Weight?

Buyeo Cultural Heritage Research Institute Analyzes Characters in Wooden Tablets Excavated from Buyeo Dongnam-ri
Date, Gold, Weight, Receipt and Payment Recorded "Estimated Administrative Office Material Receipt and Payment Records"

Five wooden tablets discovered at the site of a new public housing construction in Dongnam-ri, Buyeo last spring have been confirmed to contain written records related to the receipt and disbursement of goods at the Baekje administrative office. Wooden tablets are wooden products on which characters are inscribed. They were widely used in ancient East Asian societies before paper became common.

According to the Cultural Heritage Administration on the 10th, the National Buyeo Cultural Heritage Research Institute has been supporting the preservation treatment of the wooden tablets since April. Infrared and near-infrared hyperspectral imaging were conducted for species analysis and reading traces of ink writing.

The wood species were identified as cherry tree species, pine species, and cedar species. Two tablets with many characters are presumed to be document tablets, while the other three are estimated to be hachal (荷札). Hachal are wooden tags attached to bundles of goods. They have grooves or holes at the top to tie strings.

After four advisory meetings and character readings, the institute deciphered some meanings of the characters on the document tablets. These include dates (十二月十一日 - December 11), gold (金), weight (重), receipt and disbursement (內), movement (?), and inventory status (亡). The institute explained, "It appears to be a document or ledger recorded by an official in charge of receipt and disbursement at the administrative office," adding, "It is an interesting method of record-keeping where a linking mark (?) is used in the blank spaces between vertically written lines, and the characters are written upside down."

The most frequently appearing character is 'ju (主).' It is possibly used as a variant character of 'jung (重),' known as a unit of weight in Baekje. A variant character refers to a character that looks different but is treated as the same character in Chinese characters. The institute stated, "This provides a clue to reinterpret Baekje’s units of weight."

Another document tablet also appears to contain records related to the receipt and disbursement of grains. Characters interpreted as millet (稗), one of the grains, movement (?), age grade (丁), personal names, and volume unit (斗) were confirmed. The institute said, "This will greatly help in restoring Baekje central administration and understanding measurement units." They added, "Since there are still differing opinions among researchers regarding character readings, we plan to continue research together with the Korean Wooden Tablet Society."

Various remains such as roads, building sites, postholes, and waterways from the Baekje period were discovered at 49-2 Dongnam-ri, Buyeo, where the wooden tablets were excavated. It is evaluated as an important site that offers a glimpse into the lifestyle of the Sabi period of Baekje.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.